Did You Know...

McCain wants to buy up individual mortgages and play loan servicer-in-chief for homeowners underwater. Obama wants to put a 90-day freeze on foreclosures and prolong the pain for short-term political gain.

Democrat Barack Obama proposed more immediate steps Monday to heal the nation’s ailing economy, including a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs…

…Obama proposed Monday that banks participating in the federal bailout should temporarily postpone foreclosures for families making good-faith efforts to pay their mortgage.

“We need to give people the breathing room they need to get back on their feet,” he said, adding that families living beyond their means share some of the responsibility.

“Part of the reason this crisis occurred, if we’re honest with ourselves, is that everyone was living beyond their means — from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street,” Obama said.

McCain opposes a temporary foreclosure moratorium and instead wants to focus on policies that would keep homeowners from ever facing foreclosure, said economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Clinton’s solution is a 90-day moratorium for foreclosures on sub-prime occupied homes, and a five-year rate freeze on sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages. The Bush administration has already responded with a 30-day cooling period on foreclosures; Clinton and her aides insist a longer freeze is essential for stabilizing a precarious situation for homeowners.

But according to some economists and officials grappling with the crisis, her proposal, which also offers a $30-billion foreclosure fund that is triple the size of Obama’s, might only prolong the agony for homeowners.

“A 90-day freeze is fine for what it is, but what happens on the 91st day?” Rokakis asked. “Why not a year? Or longer?”

In San Antonio on Tuesday, Obama said that Clinton’s foreclosure freeze was potentially “disastrous,” rewarding “people who made this problem worse” by benefiting banks that profit from high mortgage rates.

A “blanket freeze,” Obama added, might “drive rates through the roof for those trying to buy or refinance. Experts say the value of homes will fall even more, and even more families could face foreclosure.”

God save us from bipartisanship.

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Commenter AlohaGuy: “You forgot to mention Michelle, that Obama wants you to be able to borrow from your retirement account with no penalty, so eventually we can all bail out the people who spend their reitrement accounts of bad mortgages…There is no end to it.”